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Thursday, 20 November 2014

All You Need is Love

I have been told that I should write stories and that it is in me to do so as I read a lot of books. So, here I am, giving writing a go and hoping that others will find it interesting.

Sitting on a picturesque beach whilst on holiday on the west coast of Koh Phangan in Thailand, seemed to be a good time to take the plunge into the art of words. The serenity and beauty of my surroundings was such a creativity boost that I took my stylus and my smartphone and let the words flow out of me.

Smartphone? I know what you are all thinking that paper and pen would be better. Or a laptop, which I don't carry with me when on holidays. I did contemplate walking over to the nearest 7-Eleven, which are everywhere in Thailand, to get some pen and paper but the thought of transcribing my almost indistinguishable handwriting to electronic format was enough to put me off writing anything. I mean, isn't that duplication and time wasting? On the other hand I can also see the benefits - one of them being improving the original thought process but, can you imagine the anguish if one of those fancy drinks with umbrellas spilt all over the handwritten material - rewriting the soaked words would be an absolute nightmare!

Keeping all these valid points in mind, I decided that my stylus and android smartphone would absolutely do the work. So here I am soaking the atmosphere that encourages relaxation and coaxes all your worries to disappear for a while and letting the words pour out. Although my surrounds inspire creativity, I have to wonder why I struggle with writing while at home. When I am in an environment that I am comfortable in, rather than on a sun lounge battling potential screen glare! Perhaps at home there are lots of distractions such as RSS feeds, emails and general net surfing. These are distractions, right? Anyway, without delving deeper into my inability to write at home, let me move on and tell you about a couple I met on this lovely beach. This is their story.

One balmy evening, my husband and I, were sitting at one of the beach bars enjoying the refreshing breeze from the ocean, the clear star studded sky and idyllic setting when loud voices cut through this serenity. The group walking in had no consideration of the ruckus they were causing. They wanted to be seen. They wanted to be heard. They were loud, obnoxious and gave of the 'don't mess with us' vibe! Making their way over the sand to the open bar, the group of five men - four of which appeared to be in their fifties whilst the fifth man was only in his early thirties - sauntered over, getting louder and louder! They were from England as we deduced by their very broad Cockney accents!

It was only after the eardrums got accustomed to the intrusion and the slang, that the eyesight registered the two petite Thai women with them. My husband and I exchanged a look as if to say, one of those! As you may be aware, or not, tourists travelling to Thailand, tend to pick up the locals as a form of companionship and unlimited sex! They pay for food, travel and any incidentals to coax them to follow them around whilst they holiday in Thailand. Now, I know it is terrible of us to judge others, however, it is human nature to do so and well, we both jumped to the same conclusion. As it turns out, we were half, somewhat, right!

During the course of our holiday, we found out that one of the women was actually married to one of the men. She had been a 'pick-up' from a previous holiday and they fell in love. She was totally up herself and didn't speak a word to anyone, opting to sit in silence whilst the others bantered on. On the other hand, the second woman, Sai, was a recent 'pick-up' from a bar in Bangkok. She was vivacious, gorgeous, hilariously funny when drunk and so tiny and petite that a strong gust of wind could easily blow her away.

Now, you’re thinking, how did they find out? Well, as much as I would like to say that my husband and I are super spies with gadgets that would make Mr James Bond drool, that is not the case. In actual fact, Sai and her man Dan took a liking to us, much to our dismay! To my thinking, they must be seriously bored with each other if they were looking to latch onto us. They actively looked for us and let me tell you, that on this particular stretch of beach, there is not a lot of hiding places. However, I am proud to say that we managed to evade them for three consecutive days! We were strutting with pride at this achievement. But I digress.

Dan and Sai, in the whole scheme of things, should have been in all over each other and not have any time for anyone else. However, they are not normal. Dan, for Sai's sake, may have somewhat alienated his friends whilst holidaying in Thailand, but they took a liking to us. During that first loud encounter, being a polite sort of person that I am, I exchanged a few smiles with Sai when we made eye contact and the next day, when we were at the same bar, they came in sans the others and sat close by. Another smile and a nod to say hello, was all it took for them to latch on.

We got their entire story in the first hour and boy did they love talking. It turns out that Dan and his group of friends were out bar hopping on their second night in Bangkok. They were showing the 'young kid' - Dan's words - the sights of Bangkok which included Ping Pong shows and bars where the wait staff had Adam's apple, big feet and were overly effeminate, otherwise known as Ladyboys.

As the group made their way from one pleasure house to another, was when Dan bumped into Sai (or Sai bumped into Dan). Whilst apologising to her, he couldn't help but be blown away with the vision that stood before him and after chatting for a few minutes on the street, he asked her to come to the next bar with him for a drink so that he could get to know her better.

He was totally smitten by Sai who was half his age, 25 to his 50! Furthermore, he loved the way she spoke. She spoke really good English but when she got intoxicated, her English disintegrated to Tinglish. For instance, she would say 'no have' instead of 'I do not have' or 'I lie' instead of 'I really like it' and 'frip frop' instead of 'flip flop'. Not only that, she had a fantastic, tight little body and he just couldn't walk away from that. So he put forward a proposition, asking her if she wanted to travel with him while he was in Thailand. Sai said yes.

Things moved relatively fast from that moment on. She went and packed a small bag and rushed back to the bar where Dan and his friends were waiting. She more than warmed his bed that night and first thing the next morning, he bought her a plane ticket to Koh Samui, and off they went, seeking sun and sand and lots of pleasure. They didn't care much for the busyness of Samui so Sai suggested Koh Phangan which is only a short ferry ride away.

When we first saw them, they had only been on the island for a few days. Sai, being Thai, managed to get a special deal on the accommodation side of things and even got the owner to throw in a scooter for them to use. Dan was more than happy for Sai to ride it while he sat at the back as the passenger. So they spend the mornings, heading over to the nearest hairdresser so that Sai could get her hair styled, before heading over to the beach for a light lunch and a swim. This was followed by a long chats and a 'nap' back at the bungalow, dinner at some restaurant and then back to the beach bar. Personally, at every encounter, I am glad that they did not go into an in-depth narrative on how they spent the time in the bungalow. They said enough that, no matter how naive you are, you still got the picture. This was their routine and it changed ever so slightly if they decided to head into the little town so that Dan could purchase something for Sai.

Three and a bit weeks into our holiday, when they arrived at the beach bar, as per their normal routine, they told us what they had got up to after they left us the night before which involved nearly crashing the scooter. I was surprised that this hadn’t already happened, as they generally closed the bar and Sai more so than Dan, was always too intoxicated to ride the scooter. Other than scratching it and loosing one of her heels, they were ok. Sai was quick to stick out her foot so that we could see her new pair of red heels.

That night, the more I listened to them talk, I realised that they were in sync. In such a short time, they had a great deal of respect for each other. There was total involvement from both which made the relationship that much more real. It was more than just a holiday hook-up. Dan genuinely seemed to care about her and was constantly showing it. One night. she ate something that disagreed with her and he was rushing her to the nearest clinic. He was already talking about sending her a ticket so that she could visit him in London. They were making plans beyond their time on the island. Beyond their time in Thailand. They totally clicked and got each other irrespective of all their differences.

I shared my thoughts and impressions with my husband over breakfast the next morning and told him that I believed that they were in love. Dan more so than Sai as I found it really hard to read her. She was always smiling and had the best poker face ever that made it close to impossible for me to figure her out. But then, I do walk around with blinkers on half the time which is why I wanted to know what my husband thought of the whole relationship. He just shrugged and said "It's a holiday romance - she gets an all paid for trip and he gets to sleep with a hot looking woman. That's the way it is."

I didn't want to be a cynic and even though initially we found their attention full on, I really hoped that there was more to what I was witnessing. When we left the island, we exchanged email addresses and didn't think we would hear from them much. However, about eighteen months later, we received an email from the both of them - their relationship was still going strong. Sai had moved to London, got a job and was loving every aspect of her life there. In their joint email, they wrote about her life, her work, her new friends and how she was barely tolerating the cold weather. They were thankful that Dan's two son's accepted Sai, despite the fact that she was close to their age, they even wanted to know if she had any female relations who looked 'hot' like her. They concluded their email with the news that Dan had proposed and to keep an eye out for the invite.

Now, we did not exchange street addresses, so we assumed that it might be an e-invite. However, we never got the invite, never heard from them again and we can only assume that they are busy with each other and are enjoying a very happy and loving life together.